Spoiler Alert
Spoiler Alert is the third of the PDF stories published through the Kickstarter reprint drive. The main character of the story is Therkla, and it prominently features the Azure City diviner Sangwaan. It was an exclusive to Kickstarter backers, but was made part of the book Good Deeds Gone Unpunished currently for sale. Summary While Therkla is enjoying her day off reading the new installment of a popular werewolf romance series, "The Dark Primal Bloodlines" (a week after it was released, since she was only paid the day before), she is instructed by Kubota to steal a fan from the estate of Lady Kin-Hu. Before she can steal the fan, she is confronted by her old rival Kohaku now working for Kin-Hu, and they duel while catching up on each other's lives until Kohaku tries to spoil the book to Therkla. Being evenly matched, Kohaku eventually offers to let Therkla have the fan if she kills a noble spice merchant that Kin-Hu wants dead, since Kohaku can't sneak in due to her cat allergies. When Therkla infiltrates the home, she offers the merchant and her husband a chance to escape the city (as it wasn't her lord who gave the order) if they give her the merchant's signet ring as proof she was killed, but they demand that she warn their son Haru at Cyan University. Haru, however, only vows to leave with his girlfriend, who in turn refuses to leave her post guarding a castle wall, and Therkla needs Fong the Forger to create a formal discharge from her commanding officer so she can leave, though he also requests a favor first. The chain of events repeats as she's subsequently asked to retrieve a jewel, a mace, sushi, a fish, a bird, a teapot, a bonsai tree, and finally a numerology codice scroll to find auspicious wedding dates. Therkla sneaks into a castle past the patrolling guards and enters the room of Sangwaan the blind diviner as she's playing music, who has already laid out the scroll Therkla needs and invites her to drink mekhong together. When she confirms that Sangwaan hasn't read the new werewolf book yet due to the braille edition coming out next month, Therkla stops the diviner from revealing how she dies, wanting to enjoy blissful ignorance until the end and feeling that the point of Sangwaan's vision wasn't for Therkla would know, but for her to choose not to know. After having more to drink, Therkla shares tales of her life while Sangwaan notes that she doesn't receive visions from Rooster of her own death, as she fears the condition that made her blind since childhood will one day take her life. Therkla begins to leave so she can do all the favors from before, but the two agree to have a "Girls' Night In" the next week before she goes. Finally getting back to Kohaku, Therkla gives her the merchant's ring for the fan, though Kohaku reveals she followed her all night and will kill the noble family at the caves they're hiding in now that they're away from their cats. When Therkla says that Kohaku can't kill them after trying to save them, Kohaku draws her poisoned sword, but Therkla willingly impales herself on the blade so she can use it to kill Kohaku, since she knows she doesn't die at that time. The next morning, Kubota reveals the fan is actually worthless and was used as a test by him and Kin-Hu for Therkla and Kohaku, which Therkla passed since he believes she knowingly took the right herbal compounds and alcohol to negate the poison's effects on her body (though he suggests she not look into learning more about resisting poison). After hearing a distant rumble of thunder, Kubota leaves Therkla to enjoy a three days' rest reading her book... until a messenger bursts in and informs her of the assassination of Lord Shojo. Therkla is commanded to guard Kubota's galleon ship in case of evacuation, and the messenger offhandedly mentions his disappointment that the entire book turns out to be "Enith's spirit dream", enraging Therkla until she lets it go and heads off to do her duty. Thirty-five hours later, Sangwaan is bitten and thrown from the air by Xykon's invisible zombie dragon, and after screaming in shock, she begins to laugh as she falls towards the ground. She commends Rooster for his "well-played" joke, and laments that she won't be able to share another drink with Therkla, wishing the half-orc ninja a "good year" in her final moment. Continuity The story takes place in early 1184, two days prior to the Battle of Azure City, with the final page of the strip portraying events from #429. Location * Azure City Cast * Therkla * Eneth * Fernanzio * Qarr * Daimyo Kubota * Kohaku * Spice Merchant * Spice Merchant's Husband * Haru * Fong the Forger * Azure city smith * Sangwaan * Hinjo * Roy Greenhilt * Haley Starshine * Belkar Bitterleaf * Guards, Soldiers, Merchants, Cats Category:OOTS Books